


you're you (and nobody else)

by blueseawitch



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (Kind of? It's Namine Ya'll), Implied/Referenced Mind Control, M/M, Memory Loss, Post-COM AU with Day's happening in the background, Ship is mostly platonic because Sora and Repliku are like...babies., What if Sora took Namines offer at the end of Com?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-03-20 05:46:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18986494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueseawitch/pseuds/blueseawitch
Summary: In a split decision at the end of his adventure at Castle Oblivion, Sora decides to forgo the memories he lost.This decision has...unforseen consequences.“Just like that?” The replica stared at the hand like it might bite him, as Sora wiggled it with a grin. “Seriously? There’s a limit to your free spiritedness before it becomes abject stupidity. How many of your memories did Namine delete again?”





	1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Sora didn't give a heartfelt five minute speech to Repliku about his own reality as a person for literally nobody on earth to give this ship the time of day.
> 
> I'm proud to officially be the third person ever in the Sorepliku tag, and the first person to not be horrible.

When the Riku replica had left the room where he’d left Sora with Namine, he never expected to hear his name, but not really, called a few minutes later, with Sora running up.

 

“What are you doing?” The replica said, frazzled. “Weren’t you going to go get your memories back?”

 

“Uh, I was going to.” Sora puts his hands behind his head with a cheery smile. “But as I was about to say yes, my heart started saying this was gonna be a mistake..” He trails off, his expression falling for a moment. “I don’t know Riku...I just felt… that trying to get my memories back would just hurt a whole bunch of people in the end. I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel like someone is keeping all those precious memories safe for me right now!” He shot Riku another dazzling grin. “So I decided to follow my heart, that’s all.”

 

Riku stares. Sora stares back. The replica can feel his temper rising. Yes, he had the real Rikus memories of Sora, but  _ apparently  _ nothing compared to the real thing. 

 

“You,” He tries to start, gesturing and glaring at Spras grinning face. “Are way to free-spirited!!! You gave up getting those memories back on a whim??” 

 

“Hey! Rikuuu stop!” Sora dodged out of the way of one of Riku’s grabbing fists. “It wasn’t a whim! You’re always the same! My heart! My heart was telling me! If there’s one thing I know it’s that you have to listen to your heart!”

 

“Right.” The replica caught Soras cheeks, squishing his face because it was familiar, and he remembered doing it when Sora had been particularly stupid. “Because your heart is in  _ such  _ good shape right now, after you ripped it out and let Namine mess with it. What are you going to do now.” 

 

“Weeehh.” Sora cheeks must be more flexible than the real Riku had remembered (or he was unobservent and dumb, which is definitely what Riku was going to believe here), because Sora managed quite an impressive pout even with the replica stretching his face. “You think I didn’t make a plan either… Listen! Donald and Goofy are gonna get their memories back, so when they wake up we’ll go back to what I was doing before! And until than….I can still work on it, yeah!”

 

He pumped a fist. “ ‘sides I still got you and Namine! Namine is gonna be working on the memories I think--but I wanna bring her back to the Destiny islands to visit at some point. What are you planning on doing Riku?” 

 

The replica blanched, letting go of Sora’s cheeks so he could cross his arms defensively _.  _ Oh sure, he was totally going to tell Sora what he was doing.  _ Totally gonna mention how I was just thinking about wandering off to die _ . The replica thought.

 

“Riku?” Sora said, leaning over to look at him with a concerned expression. “Is everything okay?” 

 

“I don’t....” The replica gulped, straightening out of his slouch suddenly to avoid Sora’s gaze. “Really know what I want to do…” He looked down at his hands. “I mean...I don’t even know…..I’m just a replica that was created here by some organization I don’t know anything about.”

 

“So….you wanna find out more about your origins?” Sora pressed his hands together, looking serious. “Right… that makes sense. I mean…” He paused before taking one of the replica’s hands. “Than, I’ll help! If you’re going to go run off, it’ll be good to have a friend, right?”

 

“S-sora?” The replica tried to pull his hand back, but Sora clenched harder, enough to make the replica suddenly exhale. “Are you stupid?”

 

“I mean, maybe!” Sora said, with enough cheery confidence the replica wanted to try and grab his face again. “I’m pretty sure Namine might have messed up half my memories of school and stuff. It’s kind of fuzzy. But helping a friend.” He grinned and took one hand off of the replica’s to put it over his heart. “That’s never stupid Riku. I’ll tell you that no matter how many times it takes. Because we’re friends now!’ 

 

It was such a dazzling display of confidence that the replica nearly found himself convinced, lips tugging up into a bit of a smile. But that name, that is, isn’t his, and the declaration of friendship both recent and old sets his mind aflutter and he finds himself pulling away, quietly. 

 

“I’m not the Riku you remember.” He says, ignoring the way Sora’s face falls. “Sora just...go be with your friends. You’re real friends” It hurt to say it, the replica couldn’t be Sora’s friend like this. Not when Riku was still around. Maybe. If he was the only one, things could be different but Sora would never want two Rikus hanging around. The minute he saw the other one, he wouldn’t settle for second best. 

 

“You know.” Sora said, his voice a  strange tight kind of cheerful. “I can’t really remember Riku that well.” 

 

The replica turned, eyes wide. 

 

_You don’t remember me?_ The word spun to his lips and died, unspoken. He wasn’t Riku, so Sora remembering Riku shouldn’t matter and yet he was Riku, and Sora couldn’t just forget every _fake, wrong controlled,_ thing they’d done together.  He opened his mouth a bit in shock before Sora spoke again. 

 

“I mean, I recognize you! I know who Riku is, and that he’s my friend. I know that we had a whole adventure where I chased after you, and I failed and you got lost in the darkness in the end.” Sora continued. He looked down, starting to mess with the edges of his jacket as he spoke again, his childish voice getting a bit of a strained pitch, harsh and squeaky all at once. “I mean. I know that. And that he’s my friend, my best friend. And there are all these good things about him that I’ve always treasured but…I just can’t...” 

 

He sucked in a breath and rubbed the bottom of his nose with a smile. “So, um! Don’t say you’re not the Riku I remember! If you’re not like the Riku I used to know, or if you are, it doesn’t matter. I met you here, and we’re friends, and that’s all that really matters, okay!” 

 

He said it cheerfully, but there was a fragile sort of command that broked no further argument. The replica almost wanted to take a step back. He didn’t. Instead he reached out to pat Sora’s shoulder as well, searching his mind, and his memories, the real ones, not the ones the Organization had put in his head, for something to say. 

 

A hefty crash and bang interrupted him. Both Sora and the replica jumped, hands flying their sides in a flash of magic to summon weapons. 

 

“Fuck, jeez.” A muffled coughing curse came as Axel stepped out from behind a pillar kicking the remains of a broken vase over. “This place is hell to portal through.Who left these everywhere?” 

 

He stopped brushing off his (admittedly pretty torn) coat to blink up at the two boys standing across the hall. Riku wasn’t the best at reading faces, and though the replica strained to overcome him, he didn’t have the foggiest idea what the other man was thinking.

 

“What are you doing here!”  Sora, apparently, had no such hangups. He lowered the Kingdom key and practically growled at the older man. “I’m warning you, if you even think of going near Namine.”

 

“Namine?” Axel leaned over to stare at Sora, a bit of a smug grin already tugging at his face. “Wait really, scratch the witch. What are you doing here Sora? Don’t you have things to rememorize?” 

 

Kingdom Key swung up in a glittering arc to aim itself towards the tall organization members face. “I don’t need memories to protect my friends from you!” 

 

The replica raised Soul Eater as well, giving Sora a curt nod from the corner of his eye. The shared desire to protect Namine, and of course, Sora’s other friends within the pods, sang between them once again.  

 

“You better turn around now.” He warned. Inwardly he knawed at himself with worry. In the brief times he’d spent in Axel’s company here, it had been exceedingly clear that the man had an agenda that neither Sora or the replica were privy to. The fact that Sora and Namine were of interest to his agenda just made the replica feel sicker to his stomach. 

 

Axel looked from one child to the next, eyebrows raised incredulously. For a seconds his fingers twitched as if to summon a chakram but instead he threw a hand back to cover his eyes and laughed. 

 

“Figures!” The spindly man howled. “Figures! Bravo! In the end that witch won after all!!” 

 

The replica felt his hand tighten on the blade in confusion and when his eyes darted to Sora he could see a similar fear reflected in his companions eyes. 

 

“What do you--” Sora began, gritting his teeth as he hefted the Kingdom Key before the replica instinctively laid a hand on his shoulder. 

 

“Namine did nothing.” He snarled instead, glaring at Axel. The darkness sung in his veins at his rage, licking at his composure like flames. He was afraid, sure, but with Sora at his side, it wasn’t hard to imagine pinning Axel down, Soul eater in hand, and finally finishing the threat off for good. 

 

“Oh sure sure sure.” Axel to his credit, looked totally unbothered waving a hand dismissively. “But who do you call a winner but the person who ends the game holding on the pieces. Really, you’re both mishearing me. I have nothing but admiration for our dear local witch. The castle gutted? Her captors killed! A replica infused with darkness and the Keyblade’s chosen, wrapped around her finger?” He brought his hands up in a mocking clap. “I thought I was moving all the pieces nicely….man I am in for it when I get back.”

 

“Back, where?” The replica called, his thoughts switching from anger to panic in an instant at that last sentence. “T-there are more of you?” More organization members? More threats? If this castle wasn’t their stronghold, than the replica found his internal chances for escape dim. 

 

“Shut up!” Sora had no such hangups. “Stop talking about Namine like that. Like you weren’t hurting her this whole time, making her do these awful things.” 

 

Axel stared at Sora with a bit of a distasteful expression that the replica couldn’t plumb before he sighed and scuffed a boot across the floor carelessly. “When they told me about the memory thing I didn't really think it worked that well.” He muttered. “Look at you two  _ Namine! Namine! Namine!  _ It’s pretty creepy when you look at how you both acted when you first got here.” 

 

“But anyway!” He continued before Sora or the replica could respond. “I don’t really care, I guess. I was coming up here to get you, mostly.” He pointed at the replica with a smirk. “Believe it or not I’m not after your precious person, I’m here to make a deal.” 

 

“Like we’d make deals with you.” Sora spits, his tiny frame radiating a rage that it seemed at odds to control. At his side, the replica wasn’t much better, only the barest scraps of some of Riku’s hangups on dignity kept him from spitting out insults around Sora. 

 

“It’s a deal that would benefit you both.” Axel wheedled. “You both want to protect Namine don’t you. We have a bit of a common goal.” 

 

He was met by stony silence, but the lack of insults or attacks thrown his way only seemed to embolden the older man. 

 

“I said Namine had her castle gutted, but that was a bit of a lie.” Axel smirked, stepping forward a little. “You see, besides the honorable your’s truly, there’s a fellow in the basement who might throw a wrench in the little system your thinking of setting up here.” He cocked his head. “Number IV. Zexion. The last organization member in Castle Oblivion.” 

 

“You want us to kill him.” The replica said coldly. “That’s….you’re in the same organization!” The memory of betrayal still stung, even with the fakeness of it. He could feel his disgust for Axel growing by the second “What do you get from it?” 

 

“Oh, tying up loose ends, this and that. Maybe I just want to be rid of an annoying co worker.” Axel winked. “Either way, he’s hurt, and not really the fighting type. The two of you could finish him off easily, with a bonus, and he can’t report back for help and summon someone worse than Marluxia to grab Namine.” 

 

With Axel practically looming over him at this point, green eyes lambent and hungry in a way that rung uncomfortably familiar in a way the replica couldn’t name, the replica had forgotten all about Sora at his side. With a war cry, the other boy tore off him and brought the Kingdom Key down onto Axel’s side. 

 

The man swore and dodged backwards, a few seconds to late. The edge of the key, dull to the touch but so magically sharp in a fight, tore into the side of his coat, running it in ribbons as it collided with his rib cage. The older man managed to dodge back in time to avoid a crushing  blow, but as he skidded back against the white floor the replica could see what must be blood dripping between his fingers as he clutched his side. 

 

“We don’t kill people!” Sora shouted as he brandished his keyblade again. “Not for you, or anyone!” His face screwed up into an angry scowl. “Do you think we’re assassins or something?” 

 

Axel coughed, hard enough the replica could see a tinge of blood on his teeth. “You’re kidding right?” Despite the bright, clinical lighting of Castle Oblivion, with the haggred dark cloak and the blood of his teeth, Axel looked every image of a cornered wolf. Yet the smug look never seemed to leave his eyes. “Larxene, Marluxia. Maybe you don’t think you’d kill people, but that little witch twisted you till it didn’t seem such a big deal, huh.” 

 

Sora practically reehled backwards like he’d been slapped, one hand slipping off the keyblade to come up to his chest as he inhaled to suddenly. 

 

“Stop talking.” The replica finally found his voice to say, rushing forward to grab Sora by the shoulder and glare at Axel. Half of him itched to finish the job that Sora had started, destroy the threat to his friends. Axel was weak, and with a bit of prompting Sora would join the fray. The darkness sang at the the thought, for sure. It craved power and strength and the indomitable will to seize the safety he wanted. 

 

But it only took one look at Sora’s clammy face to realize that wasn’t an option. 

 

“Get out of here.” He said again. “I won’t say it twice.” The threat flitted in without thinking, and Axel smirked again. 

 

“Fine, fine.” He took a step backward, clearly trying to hide the limp Sora’s attack had left. “I know when I’m not wanted. But the deal, or really, your option still stands. You can’t leave Zexion alone down there alive.”    
  
And with that, and a puff of sulphur and darkness, the man was gone. 

 

The replica let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, sinking to his knees. Sora swayed to a second with support and than plopped to the ground beside him, taking shaky breaths. 

 

“That sucked.” He finally said weakly. 

 

The replica let himself flop down onto his back, blinking up at the reflective white ceiling. Him and Sora sort of looked like red and blue splotches. 

 

“Yeah.” He agreed, before turning to look over at Sora. The other boy was crossed legged and staring at his shaking hands before he looked up to see the replica staring and firmly placed them in his lap. 

 

“Do….” The replica blinked slowly, trying to find the words. He was surprised to find they came, unbidden but familiar. Riku’s memories weren’t always worthless after all. He’d upset Sora enough when they were kids to learn this script. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?” 

 

“No. It’s fine.” Sora slowly wiped his eyes. “I mean. There’s not a lot to say. He’s kind of right. I don’t. I don’t think I kill people. I don’t want to hurt people. But when I look at what I did, when I was only thinking about Namine…” He wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling them up. “And I attacked Axel just now. Without evening thinking. The normal me...wouldn’t do that. Right?” He looked at the replica expectantly. 

 

“He deserved it.” The replica said instead. Part of him broiled inwardly to defend Sora’s actions for Namine’s sake but the truth was his own opinions on the organization were pretty much the same. “And so did Larxene and Marluxia. They’re all awful, and they deserve to die.” 

 

“I don’t think anyone  _ deserves  _ to die, Riku.” Sora giggled a bit, tilting his head to look at the other boy. “Maybe sometimes...you have to fight to protect people but we….we can’t just go hunt somebody down just because it might be a danger.” 

 

The replica worried his thumb, biting into the thick fabric of his glove. His emotions on that matter were conflicting. On one level he did agree with Sora, but on the other….. “We can’t just leave him alone.” He finally said, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “It’s just not practical...If he calls over more people who will come after us and Namine.” 

 

“And we can’t let that happen…” Sora leaned back. “Ugh.” 

 

“Ugh.” The replica felt inclined to agree. 

 

They both sat in an odd sort of companionship for a second. 

 

“Welp.” Sora finally said, standing to dust off his pants and extend and hand to the replica. “There’s no use worrying about it. Let’s go down to the basement and see what happens. I’m sure if we follow our hearts, we’ll be able to find a solution.”

 

“Just like that?” The replica stared at the hand like it might bite him, as Sora wiggled it with a grin. “Seriously? There’s a limit to your free spiritedness before it becomes abject stupidity. How many of your memories did Namine delete again?” 

 

Sora laughed and grabbed his hand to pull him the rest of the way up. 


	2. a slow descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora and Riku continue their descent through Castle Oblivion.
> 
> Zexion continues to have a bad day.

_Sora tapped the strange egg shaped thing with a finger, his eyes wide as the opaque surface of it shifted under his touch. It made his finger feel a bit numb.  Namine stood awkwardly behind him, Donald and Goofy had long retreated to their own pods._

 

 _“It feels warm.” He said, pressing his whole hand against the capsule and chuckling a bit when the pins and needles feeling extended to his elbow. “Is this your magic_?”

 

_“Kind of…” Namine’s soft voice echoed behind him. “Its magic of memory and the heart. Your heart. I don’t think I could really call it mine.”_

 

_Sora frowned and pushed his hand further. Part of his mind half expected his hand to start to sink into the orb, but it remained firm, even as the tingling sensation continued. It’s strange, the further he pushed, the more something echoed emptily in his heart. An aching connection he hadn’t noticed before. It was right there, dancing around his fingertips. There was a dread to the sensation, a wrongness, but Sora was unable to resist the tug of the connection as he reached out and pulled._

 

_His teeth slammed shut as it felt like a static charge ripping through his body. He slammed his forehead into the orb as he spasmed, yelping at the impact that somehow tasted like sea salt (but sweet)._

 

_“Sora!” Namine cried, throwing down her sketchbook as Sora reeled back clutching his forehead onto to fall backwards onto the floor._

 

_He looked up dizzily, his eyes dancing with after images of sunsets and for a second when he looked at Namine he wondered why her hair wasn’t ~~red **black** red **.**~~_

 

_Still there was one thing singing out in his heart, a strange certain dread that hadn’t been there before._

_“Namine.” He said weakly, looking up at his friend. “Is it okay if I keep my memories here after all?”_

_Namine stared down at him for a second before she burst into tears._

  
  


\----------

  
  


Sora followed Riku down the winding halls of Castle Oblivion. The other boy moved with confidence through the floors, practically jogging as he navigated through the same white walled rooms over and over.

 

It was certainly faster than Sora’s ascent through this place with Donald and Goofy, but the silence was getting a little awkward.

 

“Where do you know where you’re going?” Sora piped up, jogging forward a bit till he was side by side with Riku again. The other boy flinched at his sudden appearance, but his quickly perked up a bit, tilting his head in confusion.

 

“I’m just uh, following his scent?” Riku tugged at the sleeves of his weird darkness suit nervously. “Like...I don’t really know it...but there’s one really strong dark smell in the basement that has to be him.”

 

“Uh.” Sora squinted a bit. The Riku in his memories definitely had an expression he used when he was messing with Sora, but it was hard to imagine at the moment. Some kind of cocky smile? This Riku’s smile just looked kind of nervous. “Are you messing with me?”

 

“What?” Riku looked affronted. “No! Why would I---Wait can you not smell him?”

 

Sora put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath through his nose. He tried to picture what darkness would smell like, but all he could really pick up was the weird sterile smell of the castle.

 

“Nope!” He said, opening his eyes. “So like, do you have some kind of darkness smelling power?” Like a superhero! Maybe Sora should have been used to cool magic powers after his whole adventure, but it still stirred a childish excitement.

 

Riku just look flushed, taking a step back with his hands up. “Maybe? I don’t know--I’ve always been able to do this!” His face fell a little. “Maybe it’s a replica thing…”

 

Sora didn’t like the look in Riku’s eyes when he said that. It was the same look Riku had on the top floor, when he’d walked off with nothing good to say for himself. Sora grabbed Riku’s hand again without thinking, dragging the other boy along a bit further.

 

“If it is, that’s really cool.” He said, finally. “It’s your own special kind of power. One that would make you, you! “ He paused. “Not that you need a power to be yourself, Riku.”

 

Riku gave him a tight smile before he pulled his hand away. “Okay, Sora.” He said, in a tone that made it very clear how unconvincing Sora had been. He set off at the same fast pace. Riku was only a little taller than Sora, but he seemed to be using those inches to their fullest.

 

That had only kind of worked, hadn’t it? With a sigh, Sora set off after his best friend.

 

—

 

Riku finally stopped at a large grey spot of wall, totally at odds with the white exterior of the rest of the castle. Sora skidded to a halt next to him.

 

“We’re here.” He said, seemingly unbothered by Sora’s near collision. Sora couldn’t tell if it was because he was still mad or Riku was just cool like that.

 

“This is the basement?” He said, looking over to Riku and hoping it was just the latter. Riku nodded, his eyes still fixed on the wall.

 

“Looks kinda...un-door-ish.” Sora joked, walking forward a little to tap on it.

 

“Yes..” Riku said seriously, putting a hand to his chin. “Of course, everyone in the organization can teleport, so they don’t need a door...but the castle should always provide if we—Damn!” He put his hands to his head. “We need a card!”

 

“A card—ooooh! Right.” Maybe his memory was getting worse than he thought if he was forgetting stuff even from the castle. Of course they needed a card to enter a new floor.

 

“Wait—but Axel wanted us to come down here!” Sora waved his hands. “Why didn’t he give us a card?”

 

“Probably was gonna teleport us.” Riku said darkly, clenching his fists. “Than he’d offer to teleport us back home once we were done but he’d just throw us above a volcano or into a deserted world or maybe so deep in this castle we forget—“

 

A dark aura was starting to form, twining up his arms and shoulders and Sora bolted, slamming his palm down on the top of Rikus head in a panic. Riku to his credit, simply blinked, as if he couldn’t believe Sora had done that.

 

“I’m sorry!!” Sora cried, pulling his hand away...only to grab Rikus hands again a second later. “There was!! You were doing a darkness thing, did you see it??” The aura had already dissipated as he spoke, and Riku kept staring at him like he’d swallowed a lemon.

 

“Er...I…” Riku looked down at his and Sora intertwined fingers with a shell shocked expression. “I’m sure Sora.”

 

“O-ok!” Sora said, letting Riku slowly pull his hand away. “Just...positive thoughts ok! We can do this! Maybe Axel just didn’t bother giving us a card because we already have it.”

 

“Maybe.” Riku said quietly. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

 

“It’s ok.” Sora repeats as he pulled out his cards and spread them on the ground. “Let’s see I’ve got red cards, blue cards, even a golden card for that one door and-“

 

“Hold on,” Riku picker up a card that had scattered away from the rest. “What’s this?”

 

Sora blinked, holding his hand out as Riku tossed him the card. He turned it around in his hands.

 

“This is the card Vexen gave me.” He stared at the strangely familiar skyline, frowning. “The one he said he made from my memories before Axel…” He let the words hang unspoken. “I thought I used it up when I went through that weird town.”

 

“But you didn’t.” Riku said, his voice calm but his eyebrows raised in the tone Sora knew meant he was excited ~~_just like when they’d worked on their raft and he’d_~~. “And Vexen was definitely one of the people who worked in the basement, I think I only saw him once.”

 

“Woo! Let’s try it.” Sora didn’t bother to pick up his cards, scrambling to his feet and holding up the card. “Go, go, go!”

 

The card shone in his hands, it’s image twisting from a golden seaside town to some strange bleak cityscape before it vanished in a glow of light. The grey wall shook slightly, and than a small door swung open, as neat as you please.

 

Sora was so jubilant about his puzzle solving skills he only stopped to give Riku a (bemused) high five before rushing forward and yanking open the door.

 

—-

 

Sora first impression of the basement was it was dark. After so many long hours walking through the brightly lit halls of Castle Oblivion, it was both a relief and a bit of a panic. Sora stumbled on something at the doorway and felt Riku’s steadying hand at his back. _He_ certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble with the transition.

 

Sora’s second impression was the smell of blood.

 

The source of the smell was clearly visible as his eyes adjusted. A young man, maybe only a few years older than Sora, was crumpled against the wall, breathing heavily as his clutches at his side. Sora instantly knew what Axel had meant when he said Zexion would be easy to defeat. The final organization member didn’t even seem able to hold himself upright.

 

His glanced up at the noise Sora had made when entering, and flinched, the whites of his eyes practically showing as he tried to cower away. But his gaze wasn’t on Sora, no, the person that Zexion looked most afraid of was...Riku?

 

“Impossible.” The man murmured, as his gaze shifted from Riku to Sora, before his eyes went bright back to Riku and widened in some unseen revelation.

 

“Wait, the Replica...of course.” Zexion breathed as if saved. “I could use that to..” But he blinked, startled out of his thoughts. “But Sora..? Why is he—unless Markuxia succeeded

 

As bad as Sora felt for this guy, he was getting kind of tired of Zexion talking about them like they weren’t in the room. And don’t think he didn’t notice that he’d referred to Riku as just “the replica” when Riku had a name. Yes, Riku was a replica and maybe he shared his name with the other “real” Riku who was also Sora’s friend but!! That was beside the point! It was about respect! If Riku wanted to be called Riku you should call him Riku!

 

If Sora was getting tired, Riku was already done. His body language was stiff as he stepped forward.

 

“We aren’t here to help you.” He said coldly. “Axel sent us here to kill you.”

 

“Yeah!” Sora said, before his brain caught up with him. “Wait but we aren’t doing that!”

 

“I only said he sent us.”

 

Zexion looked between the two of them. “Axel sent you to kill me?” His said in a small voice, even though Sora had just said they weren’t. “Than, Marluxia wasn’t the only traitor… Everyone here was a traitor but me. That..or, everyone who was sent here was to be killed and—” Hell let out a yelp and tried to push himself off the wall, darkness pulsing at his hands.

 

“I have to get out of here.” Zexion muttered, half to himself. He must have been near delirious from blood loss, the way he was acting but the darkness gathering at his palms was no joke. Sora felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

 

He didn’t know if Zexion meant to portal away or attack them, and he didn’t find out. Faster than Sora could draw Kingdom Key, Riku was there, driving his knee into Zexion's jaw and slamming him into the wall.

 

“Riku!”’Sora called, the keyblades magic dispelling as he ran over. “What! Is he…?”

 

Riku stared at Zexion's crumpled body blankly, breathing heavily. “It’s ok.” He said. “He not dead of anything. I just knocked him out. I was telling the truth earlier. I didn’t really want to kill him either.”

 

He sounded a little desperate. Sora wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to beg for Sora trust like that. That Sora believed him, in him. But he couldn’t find the words with his heart hammering so fast in his chest.

 

“I just really wanted to kick him.” Riku continued wrly. “I mean it. He was really pissing me off.” He turned away but the hateful gleam was back in his eye, the disgusted stare that only recently had been leveled at Sora.

 

It was enough to get Sora moving again. He let out the breath he was holding and patted Riku’s shoulder. It seemed to calm the other boy down.

 

“Well,” He looked down at Zexion's body. There was a new cut on his temple that had begun to ooze. That couldn’t be good. “He’s knocked out now. So he won’t be attacking us or getting away anytime soon.”

 

“Um.” He said looking back at Riku. “What do we do now?”

 

“Interrogate him.” Riku said immediately, maybe a little gleefully. Which, ok maybe he wasn’t a fan of how Zexion had been taking either but man Riku had a bone to pick with him now. “He knows something, something Axel doesn’t want him to. And he’s gonna know more about their shady organization and…who...what I am.”

 

Riku’s face fell at that. Sora patted him again.

 

“It’ll be fine.” Riku seemed to relax at his words so he kept going. “I think it’s a good idea anyway. I’m sick of not knowing anything. But don’t go kicking him any more! He could die! He’s dying!” He looked at Zexion again. “I should heal him.”

 

Riku grabber the collar of his shirt, yanking him backwards.

 

“Not before we tie him up, idiot.” He grumbled. “If you heal him now he’ll just wake up.”

 

“But if we wait too long he’ll die. Rikkuuu!” Sora whined until Riku let him go. “Do you even know how to tie somebody up?”

 

“Absolutely not.” Said Riku, crossing his arms. “But how hard could it be?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anddd i did it! chapter 2! i got a bunch of nice comments on chapter 1, so thank you anyone for sticking with my one man crusade to make sora and repliku a real ship.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly wrote this on a whim and am bad at updating so please comment if you want more. I'll got a few lore details down here. 
> 
> Sora's memories still exist, but because he won't be in the egg regaining them, they automatically transferred to Xion when he gave up on getting them. 
> 
> And Sora. Honestly Sora is what I'm excited the most to write here. COM Sora is one of my favorite versions of Sora because of how weird he is. He's still technically a heartless pretending to be a person by grace of Kairi's magic, Namines tinkering gave us the first hand look at the berserker rage he pulls out a ton in KH2. And to top it all of the weird gaps in his memory probably mean he's kind of papering over traits he's not longer quite sure why he has. It's weird, its cool, its interesting. COM is still my favorite Kingdom hearts game.


End file.
